Budapest on foot- July 1st

Friday I enjoyed one of the best walking tours yet. Our guide Regi was just so warm, nice, funny, and knowledgable that the tour was wonderful. Here are some fun facts from my tour-

• St. Peter’s Basilica is 96m because Budapest celebrates their millennial anniversary of the settlement of Magyars in the region in 1896. It is one of the two tallest buildings in Budapest with the other being of the same height- the Hungarian Parliament Building, symbolically representing church and state of same importance and nothing in city can be built taller than these buildings. 
• No priests are buried in the basilica, but a famous Hungarian football player and manager (Ferenc Puskas) was buried under the dome of the basilica in 2006. 
• Rubrik’s Cube is a Hungarian invention, invented by none other than Ernö Rubik

We also got a Hungarian Language lesson during our tour:

To say Hello= “Cya”

To say goodbye = “hello”

To say thank you = “crosi” (my best shot at phenetic spelling here)

To say cheers= Egészségére thankfully there is a short version—> but I don't recall it

Thus if you hear someone on the phone end a call with: “Ok hello, ok poszit” = goodbye, kiss on the cheek

Our guide told us some of these odd things about the language as she said it makes very little sense, but I laughed when I read this article, hope you enjoy it too! 

Tiny parliament in the background

View across the river from the tour

Continuing the trend of meeting either interesting people to talk to or spend the day with I met someone on this tour too. This time I met a young woman originally from a Pune, India but now lives in San Fransisco, California. Surprise surprise, she is also in the tech-scene and works as an electrical engineer. It was fun to talk with her because we could talk about things in the states, engineering, California (my brother is actually currently living in SF too), and India things. Oddly enough, she thinks I’ve seen more of India then she has and she was born and lived there through finishing her undergraduate degree before coming to NY for her masters. It’s definitely been fun to have learned a lot about the culture and religions of India through my SWE Overseas experience because I have been able to connect with more travelers this way. Last weekend too when I was in Wroclaw with fellow trainees I met a group of 5 or so originally from India and they were amazed about how many places I saw and what all I knew about India. They even gave me a list of “must-see Indian movies.” haha But the friend I met in Budapest was also a solo-traveler, so we spent the day together exploring the Buda side of town (where the castle district is and all the sights). Essentially the whole Buda side is on a hill, but the nature and beauty makes the hiking worth it! According to our tour guide all the sights and history is on the Buda side and all the things to do (night-life, etc. ) are on the Pest side of the city. 

We started our post-tour by going across the bridge to the Pest side of town in order to go the famous Great Market Hall for lunch and souvenirs. It was really a cute part of town and the entire lower level was devoted to what was like a farmers market filled with people selling fresh meat, cheese, breads, vegetables, and fruit. The second level had so many souvenir shots and lots of venders selling hand knitted table clothes and things, additionally there were lunch/dinner stands that we got food from. Buying food and things in Budapest is probably one of the most disorienting things though because of the exchange rate- 1 Hungarian Florent= 0.0035 USD or roughly 286 HUH = 1 USD. 

Our main hike was up to Gellert Hill to see the Liberty Statue that honestly looks like a bottle opener from a far (my friend mentioned this and then I couldn’t stop seeing that vs the lady holding a leaf). But the view over the Danube river was beautiful and I enjoyed just chilling up there and watching as the sun started to come down. On the same hill is the Citadella and beautiful gardens behind it. 

First thing when climbing something tall- fun picture with the view :D 

Budapest - Danube River

The view is always better as a Michigan Wolverine :) 

Enjoying the sunsetting from this beautiful garden

That night I decided to stay at the hostel vs going out seeing as I didn’t get back to the hostel until 8pm. It was a beautiful thing when 8:30 rolled around and the hostel suddenly became silent as all the drinking games stopped and everyone going out left. As I cooked dinner, I met “Fizzy” from the staff. She was from Maine and we talked for a bit about Budapest and things to do. I thought it was funny when she told me it was nice to hear there are people who actually do productive things when visiting Budapest. Sad thing, is this wasn’t the last staff person to comment and be impressed by the fact I actually did more than go out at night while here. Many travelers from the hostel I met even admitted to the fact that their entire time in Budapest has basically been night-life as the mornings were too rough to do much and the afternoons were preparing for the next night…not really why I came to Budapest, so it seems like whatever your scene you can find things to do here.